1 Timothy 6:1-10: For the Sake of the Gospel

Let’s turn in our Bibles to 1 Timothy 6:1-10. We come this morning to the final chapter of 1 Timothy. And Paul is winding down his comments to this young pastor by giving him a batch of short, pithy, practical commands. And that’s in keeping with how Paul typically writes his letters. His letters are usually doctrine heavy on the front side, and implications-of-the-gospel heavy on the backside. You might say it this way: Paul starts with orthodoxy, and then he moves to orthopraxy in his letters. 


And the orthopraxy for today’s message centers on four different issues. And these issues are imminently relevant for the church in Ephesus. This church has problems. And Paul has tasked young Timothy to fix them. And the reason these problems need fixing is because the reputation of the gospel is being besmirched by Christians behaving badly. And so, some of these statements may seem harsh… they may seem outdated or antiquated to our modern sensibilities. It may seem like Paul is just having a “get-off-my-lawn” moment at the end of this letter. But his goal in this is to protect the reputation of the gospel and to protect the spread of the gospel within the church. 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So four points for today’s message. And I want to frame each of these under the rubric of “For the sake of the gospel.” Here’s #1. “For the sake of the gospel, Timothy, and the church in Ephesus, you need to… 

1) Resist insubordination (6:1-2a)

1 Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. 


Now I know this is a touchy subject in an American context. Slavery was one of our nation’s greatest sins in the first 100 years of its inception. Even the state of Texas has a checkered past as it relates to the issue of slavery. So this is a difficult issue for us to address. But we need to be careful that we don’t become self-righteous in this regard towards the ancient Roman Empire or the antebellum South. Slavery still exists today in the form of human trafficking and sex trafficking all around the world including in our own country. 


So as best we can, let’s try to read this passage and understand it in light of its original setting. In this section of the letter, Paul is giving specific instructions to Timothy on how to handle situations with specific demographics in the church. He first spoke to Timothy on how to interact with older men, younger men, older women, and younger women in 5:1-2. He then discussed the delicate situation involving widows in the church (5:3-16). And then he dealt with elders, both honorable and dishonorable (5:17-25). Now he deals with another demographic of people in the Ephesian church—slaves (6:1-2). 


Now slavery was a normal part of ancient society. And what we have here in 1 Timothy, is not a tacit approval of slavery, but instead an accommodation to the realities of the ancient world. Paul never explicitly condoned slavery. And in fact, he told people to buy their freedom if they can (1 Cor 7:21). And he tells Christians to not sell yourself as a bondservant if you are free (1 Cor 7:23). Add to this the fact that Paul basically deemphasizes the slave/master relationship between Philemon and Onesimus, while also stressing their brothers-in-Christ relationship (Phlm 1-25), and you have a pretty strong case in the NT that slavery was not what God desired for the world or for Christian society. Paul even tells the slave-owner Philemon to treat his slave Onesimus no longer as just a bondservant but as a beloved brother in Christ (Phlm 16-17). And I agree with NT scholar Bill Mounce and others who believe that Paul and the NT writers planted the seed that germinated in the abolition of slavery. 


But slavery, as an institution, was very much the order of the day in the first century Roman world. I should point out that slavery in the Roman Empire was different than the heinous practice of kidnapping and enforced ethnic slavery in North America. Although the practice varied widely, much slavery in the first century Roman world was a form of indentured servitude. And there was a remarkable amount of freedom allowed to the slave. Some slaves even had the freedom to conduct business on behalf of their masters, thereby enriching themselves in the process. 


This situation was complicated in the Ephesian church because of the preponderance of slaves in the city. One commentator I read this week estimated that slaves made up more than a third of the population in Ephesus. So ostensibly the Ephesian church was made up of both slaves and masters. It’s possible that even some slaves served as elders within the church where their master’s attended. That would have made for an awkward situation.


But here’s the point of this passage. Paul commands the slaves of the church to not use their freedom in Christ as an excuse for insubordination. Instead they should “regard their masters as worthy of all honor.” Paul speaks to slaves in general in verse one. Every slave should be respectful to his master regardless of whether or not his master is a Christian. But in verse two, he addresses specifically slaves who have Christian masters. 

2 Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. 


There is equality in Christ, no doubt! Slaves and masters are brothers in Christ. And there are no slave/master relationships in eternity. Paul would say elsewhere that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). Paul says also, “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:11). 


But does that equality then obliterate gender roles or ethnicity or in this case subordination roles? Paul says, “No!” Submission is not the same as inferiority. We stand before God as equals, yet we still need to submit to the authorities that God has put over our lives, whether that means the government, the church, or our workplace authorities. 


Now look, there is no one-for-one correspondence between the situation in Ephesus and what we encounter here in San Antonio. We are not a church comprised of slaves and freemen. Praise God for that! Praise God for the abolition of slavery in our country. Praise God for the Emancipation Proclamation. And praise God for Christians like William Wilberforce and others who worked tirelessly to bring that about. 


But that leaves us with a conundrum. What do we do with a passage like this? Can we just dismiss this passage as irrelevant to our modern context? No, I don’t think so. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable…” (2 Tim 3:16). So we need to do something similar to what we did with the passage on widows a few weeks back. We need to ascertain the abiding principle here that we can apply into our own twenty first century context.


And I think there is a principle here that is transferable to modern day relationships between employers and employees. For example, if you replace “bondservants” with “employees” and “masters” with “employers” in verse 1, you’ll see what I mean:

1 Let all who are [employees] regard their own [employers] as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. 


I admit, it’s not a perfect parallel. But it’s close. In fact this principle is closely tied to Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”


In that vein, look at verse 2. And let’s do the same thing by replacing “bondservants” with “employees” and “masters” with “employers.”

2 [Employees] who have believing [employers (or bosses)] must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. 


There must have been an issue with this in the Ephesian church. Paul must be decrying something specific here. Presumably there were bondservants in the church who were disrespectful or insubordinate to their masters because their masters were believers. And they were saying, “Hey, you’re my brother in Christ! So why should I have to submit to your authority?” 


We don’t have slaves and masters in our churches. But we may have employees and employers. And we do have employers out there in the world, and we want to have a good reputation before the world if possible. And I know what it can be like in the workplace. Sanja and I both spent time in the corporate world in Chicago. We both saw how insubordination and disrespect for employers becomes a way of life for so many people: slandering the company, slandering the boss, disrespecting corporate policies, cheating the company out of time and money. It’s a way of life for some people. 


And I have this conviction that Christians need to be radically dissimilar from that in this world, for the sake of the gospel. I have this conviction that Christians should be the best workers, the best employees, and the best examples to others in the workplace. For the sake of the gospel, let’s be dissimilar from the world. Let’s honor our employers. Let’s bless our superiors at work and be good examples to fellow employees at work. And if you are a business owner and employer, be a godly example to those who work under you.


Are there times when we need to engage in civil disobedience towards our employers, towards our government, towards our authorities? Yes, there are. The Apostle Peter said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). But weigh that carefully. Make sure it truly is a matter of “we must obey God rather than men” and not just some random opportunity for you to rage against the machine. 


And why is it important for us to submit to our superiors? Why does Paul emphasize this principle here, but also in a few other places in Scripture (Eph 6:5; Col 3:22; Titus 2:9-10; see also Gal 3:28; Col 4:1; Phlm 1-25; 1 Pet 2:16)? Well, the reasoning here is that it protects God’s reputation and the gospel of Jesus Christ from being reviled. 

1 Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So for the sake of the gospel, resist insubordination. Write this down as #2. This second point is more straight-forward in terms of application in our modern-day world. For the sake of the gospel… 

2) Reject unsound doctrine (6:2b-5)

Paul says at the end of verse 2,

Teach and urge these things.


In other words, “Teach all these things that I’ve been walking you through in this letter, Timothy—both the orthodoxy and the orthopraxy!” And…

3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine 


If anyone engages in “heterodox teaching”… The Greek verb is ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω. This is derived from the Greek ἕτερος meaning “other” or “different” and διδασκαλία meaning “teaching.” Paul says, “If anyone teaches a different teaching…” Different from what? Different from Paul’s doctrine here! Different from what Jesus and his trusted apostles passed down to the church. 

3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 


Now pause there for a second. Notice there’s a moral component to sound teaching. Sound teaching leads to godliness. If you teach the truth about Christ, then people will start to look and act like Christ, and the church will grow in Christlikeness. The Apostle John would say it this way, “We walk in the light as he is in the light” (John 8:12; 12:35; 1 John 1:5-10; see also Matt 5:14-16; Eph 5:8; 2 Cor 4:6).

3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he [the false teacher… the different doctrine teacher…] is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. 


False teaching has been a big issue in the book of 1 Timothy. The reason that Timothy was sent to Ephesus, in large measure, was because false teachers were circulating in the church. Paul had already dismissed two people from the church for this, Hymenaeus and Alexander (1:19-20). Paul alludes to the fact that there are teachers going around saying that marriage is bad, and eating is bad, and asceticism is good. And anything tactile or physical is bad. Paul calls this the teaching of demons taught by liars (4:2-5). So presumably the problem of false teaching still exists in this church. 


So Paul tells Timothy here…

3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine …4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. 


So, just to be clear. These false teachers are not only conceited; they are ignorant. That’s a dangerous combination! One commentator I read this last week called the false teachers in Ephesus “pompous ignoramuses.” They are both prideful and ignorant! Anyone ever been exposed to someone who is both prideful and ignorant? It’s pretty hard to work with someone like that. A knowledgeable person who is prideful—you can work with that. You can argue that person to a good position. Even an ignorant person who is humble—you can work with that too. Those people are usually teachable. But ignorance and pride—that’s tough. That’s like fire and gunpowder! Pride and ignorance are two explosive compounds that blow up everything around them.


The church father, Chrysostom said, “It is possible… to be knowing and yet to know nothing.” The old word for this in the philosophical world is sophistry. It’s people who know just enough to be dangerous. They know just enough to be puffed up with hubris and arrogance. 


And speaking of being dangerous, Paul writes in verse 4. 

4 he [the different doctrine teacher] is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He [the different doctrine teacher] has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 


Wow! That is Paul on an epic rant. That is angry Paul going “get off my lawn” on some folks in the church. And why is he so amped up? Because doctrine is at stake here! The gospel is at stake here! 


There’s a lot going on in these verses but notice the progression from 1) bad doctrine (verse 3) to 2) pride (verse 4) to 3) ignorance (verse 4), to 4) dissention (verses 4-5), and then finally to 5) deceit (verse 5). This is like a spiral downward. Let’s follow this descent. 


The bad doctrine is verse 3. These are people that teach “heterodox doctrine” (ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω). Those who do this are guilty of pride, because they have rebelled against the Apostles’ doctrine and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know real engagement with doctrinal truth should result in humility and unity, not pride and dissention. Pride is the wrong response to the doctrines of God. When you really grapple with biblical truths like your identity as a sinner, and God’s sovereignty over our world, and what Christ has done for you to set you free from sin, that should bring forth humility in your life as a Christian. It’s the ones who try to circumvent what Christ has done with their own legalism that manifest pride. And that pride is evidence of ignorance.


Paul says that a false teacher like this is… 

puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy…


As pride and ignorance start to fester, the next result is dissention. Paul calls this an “unhealthy craving for controversy.” Literally Paul says, “He is sick.” The false teacher is prideful, he’s ignorant, and he’s sick. 

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, 


I once had a friend try to convince me that the Greek word λόγος meant a word spoken by the Holy Spirit directly to a Christian outside of what’s communicated in Scripture. I was shocked when this person said this because this came from a good friend. This came from a person I respected and loved. But I had never heard someone confidently assert something so ridiculous. And I didn’t know what to do. I tried to refute his points, but it was pointless. He was too prideful to receive from anyone. He was utterly unteachable. It was impossible to get through to him. My words were like “pearls before swine” (Matt 7:6), to use Jesus’s expression. 


Whenever I read passages like this one, I think of that individual.

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, 


Pride leads to ignorance, which leads to dissention… controversy, quarrels, envy, slander, evil suspicions (conspiracy theories and the like), and constant friction. Yuck! Who wants any of that? I’ve been in environments like that. People who are more about what they are against than what they are for. Eventually the hate that they project on the outside world is turned inward and they start cannibalizing their own. They are fueled by dissention. 


Have you ever known someone like that? Someone who is fueled by dissention? Someone who just can’t live without drama? I think there is actually something pathological in this. 


I read several years ago about a clinical diagnosis called Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD). This has to do with people who crave attention and therefore create drama to draw attention to themselves. Listen to some of these symptoms:

experiences discomfort when not the center of attention 

displays shallow and rapidly shifting emotions 

places extreme value on personal appearance and uses appearance to draw attention to self 

speaks with little detail while conveying vague ideas 

thinks interpersonal relationships are more intimate than they really are 

often interacts in inappropriately sexual or seductive ways 


I can’t help but think that some of the false teachers and others in Ephesus would have been diagnosed with Histrionic Personality Disorder. But I’m not here to play psychologist. This is sin, plain and simple. Look at what’s going on here:

envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, 


These are evidence of the flesh. And the flesh has moved from pride to ignorance to dissention to ultimately deceit. 

imagining that godliness is a means of gain.


These false teachers were ultimately playing a game of “false spirituality” in order to profit from the church. They were con-artists and hucksters.


We’ll talk some more in the following verses about greed and an improper desire for wealth. Needless to say, these false teachers are guilty of the worst kind of greed. It’s a greed that would prey upon the people of the church. It’s a greed that would promote a false gospel and false doctrine in order to enrich themselves. Do we have examples of that in our twenty first century world? Yeah, we do! Unfortunately some of the most popular and well-known professing Christians in our world are little more than prosperity-gospel preaching con-artists. 


How do you combat that in the church? Well, if bad doctrine is the disease (ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω), then sound doctrine is the cure. And sound doctrine should lead to wisdom and to knowledge. And that should lead to humility among the people of God. And that should engender unity not divisiveness in the church. And that should lead to elders who are focused on godliness and good gain not shameful gain. 


By the way, there are times when the pursuit of sound doctrine should lead to dissent. There are times when disunity is necessary, like the Protestant Reformation for instance. Disunity was necessary during the Civil War as well, when our country was battling against the evils of slavery. But the battles that most people fight in churches are not about the purity of the gospel or the elimination of evil. Usually it’s about the color of the carpet. Or it’s about some feud with another person in the church. Or doctrinally, it’s about secondary or tertiary issues not primary issues. And it’s often generated by pride and a desire to wield power in the church. 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So for the sake of the gospel, Paul implores Timothy and the church in Ephesus to reject unsound doctrine and all that comes with it, namely pride, ignorance, dissention, and deceit. And Paul moves from that to a broader issue in the Christian life, the issue of contentment. 


Write this down as #3 in your notes. For the sake of the gospel Paul wants us to resist insubordination, reject unsound doctrine, and thirdly…

3) Learn contentment (6:6-8) 


Paul piggybacks on that last phrase about false teachers in verse 5. He said that these false teachers… 

[imagine] that godliness is a means of gain.


But godliness should never be a means of financial profit for hucksters and charlatans within the church. But don’t think for a second that godliness isn’t profitable. It is profitable when mixed with contentment. 



Paul says in verse 6,

6 Now there is great gain [profit] in godliness with contentment, 


In other words, godliness married to contentment… that’s profitable! When those two things are brought together, there is peace within the soul. That’s more valuable than riches or materialism. 

7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 


You were born naked and penniless, and you will die that way. Job was right, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).


“But Pastor Tony, Haven’t you heard? He who dies with the most toys wins?” Is anyone persuaded by that statement? I’m not. John Piper said once, “There are no U-Hauls behind hearses.” When you die you will either go to heaven or to hell. And I guarantee you in both of those places the last thing on your mind will be how many toys you accumulated on earth. And besides that, even on this side of eternity, I’m not persuaded that more stuff leads to contentment. Oftentimes it’s the exact opposite. 


There’s a story told about an ancient king who was suffering from an incurable sickness. And he was told that if he wore the shirt of a man who was truly contented then he would be healed. So the king sent out emissaries throughout his realm, and after a long search a man was found who was truly content. But there was a problem. That contented man didn’t own a shirt! What’s the lesson of that story? Contentment isn’t found in the abundance of possessions.


And speaking of contentment, while we are on earth, Paul says in verse eight. 

8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.


 Boy, that’s pretty basic. Food and clothing? That’s like bare necessities right there. Paul says, “Forget about the toys. Forget about the Christmas presents that put you in the hole every year. Forget about the insatiable consumerism that strangleholds this country and compels people to spend more than they make every year on stuff that is hopelessly temporal.” Paul says here “If you have food and clothing… if you are blessed with them most basic human provisions… be content.” There’s nothing wrong with working to better yourself or your position financially. Don’t assume that. But there is something wrong with being discontent when God has given you the basic provisions that you need. 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And finally, here’s a final plea from the Apostle Paul. Write this down as #4. For the sake of the gospel…

4) Guard against money-lust (6:9-10)


Paul writes in verse 9.

9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.


Okay, what’s Paul saying here? Is wealth sinful? No, wealth isn’t sinful. But wealth has a unique set of snares and temptations that many people can’t handle. Paul is not condemning the rich in this passage. Please don’t make that mistake. There are ample examples of godly wealthy people in the Bible including Job, Abraham, David, Joseph of Arimathea, and Lydia. And there are plenty of examples of wealthy Christians in our modern day world who have used their wealth for good like R.G. LeTourneau, S. Truett Cathy, and David Green.


But Paul is warning those who are wealthy, much like Jesus did during his ministry. Remember what Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt 19:24). Paul is warning those in the church who have an unhealthy desire for wealth. He’s saying, “That desire has the potential to plunge you into ruin and destruction. So watch yourself!”


Look at verse 10.

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. 


The Greek word for “love of money” is φιλαργυρία. In the NT, there’s φιλαδελφία (“love for brothers”), there’s φιλοξενία (“hospitality” or “love for strangers”), and then there’s φιλαργυρία (“love of money”). φιλαδελφία and φιλοξενία are good. φιλαργυρία is bad. It is “a root of all kinds of evils.”


And let me give you two qualifiers for this sentence in verse 10. I hear this verse misquoted a lot. It doesn’t say “Money is a root of all kinds of evil.” It says, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Money is morally neutral. Don’t be guilty of demonizing a neutral substance. People do that with sex. They do that with alcohol. They do that with food. Money is not the root of all kinds of evil but “the love of money” or φιλαργυρία is the root of all kinds of evil. I’m using the term “money-lust” because I think that helps convey what Paul is saying here. He’s saying, “[Money-lust] is a root of all kinds of evils.”


Also, if you have an ESV Bible, notice that it doesn’t say, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” That’s too comprehensive. It says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Money-lust is not the only thing in this world that generates evil. But there are numerous evils that are generated by the love of money. And because of that we need to curb this natural tendency in the human heart. And by the way, that’s not something that’s limited to the rich. Both rich and poor and everyone in between can struggle with money-lust.

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving


By the way, this word “craving” (ὀρέγω) is the same word that Paul used in 1 Timothy 3:1 to talk about the aspirations of an elder/overseer. He says, “if any aspires (ὀρέγω) to the office of overseer,” that’s good. This aspiring though, in 1 Timothy 6:10, is bad. This is an unhealthy craving (ὀρέγω) for mammon. 

10 … It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.


Another Biblical term that you could use for this section of Scripture is the word “covetousness.” That’s really what Paul is describing here. Nobody wants money just to have money. They want money, because it gives them the freedom to buy the stuff that they desire—the stuff that everyone else has. And this is the stuff we covet. And the Bible says, tenth commandment, “thou shalt not covet…” (Exod 20:17, KJV). 


Johnny Carson, the famous Tonight Show host, once said that “The only thing money gives you is the freedom of not worrying about money.” That’s it. But that’s not much. 


Someone once asked the millionaire Bernard Baruch, “How much money does it take for a rich man to be satisfied?” He replied, “Just a million more than he has.” There’s a futility in this that you can get caught up in if you’re not carried. And if all you chase in this world is money, you probably are going to get it, especially in a free market, capitalistic society like ours. But be careful now. Don’t miss out on your kids because your chasing promotions and salary at work. Don’t miss out on your church, because you have got more time for the company than you do the Lord. 


Learn the secret of contentment. In Hebrews 13:5, the author says, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” 

The hymnwriter, Rhea F. Miller said it this way. She wrote this a little over 100 years ago, 

I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

I'd rather be His than have riches untold;

I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands.

I'd rather be led by His nail pierced hand

Than to be the king of a vast domain

Or be held in sin's dread sway.

I'd rather have Jesus than anything

This world affords today.


These riches and these toys will leave you. Hearses don’t have U-Hauls behind them. Your toys and your possessions will abandon you at death. But Jesus never will. So put your faith in that. Crave that treasure, that is, your relationship with Christ. Don’t crave the riches of this world. 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Four things, church. Let’s review. 

For the sake of the gospel…

Resist insubordination (6:1-2a)

Reject unsound doctrine (6:2b-5)

Learn contentment (6:6-8) 

Guard against money-lust (6:9-10)

God help us with these things. Let’s pray to that end now.